sit down son

This is an update for all of you who don't stalk me on twitter/facebook.

I am, in fact, IN DUBLIN. My flight was not canceled, I did the shoddiest packing job of my life as my body conspired against me (being female SUCKS), I made it everywhere I needed to be on time, and did I mention my flight DIDN'T GET CANCELED? It was the third flight to land in Dublin, apparently.

I'm now on angryhamster's couch, because she is far too kind and she and her mum MET ME AT THE AIRPORT. Which was very un-busy on the arrivals side. I've seen pictures of the departures side and, well, that looked rather busier. Getting through the passport control is almost always pretty easy for me in Dublin, but today it was so easy it was almost stupid. Minor hang-up with the baggage, but got it in the end and even got my phone up and running again (though I can't figure out my online password for it to save my life, so I'll just top it up from a shop later on.)

BUT HOLY SHIT I MADE IT!

I had forgotten about thunderstorms. Like, the real proper sorts of thunderstorms that go on for hours and just have buckets and buckets of rain and periodic rumbles of thunder and the flashes of lightning.

I had forgotten what they were like and it's a bit strange to experience it again. Flashing lights and all.



In Dublin, the power went out once on account of a windstorm.

I recall exactly one thunderstorm in which I could count the number of thunder cracks on my fingers and went and sat in the window because it was just so odd. It didn't last long and the oppressive humidity that had built up that week went away with it.

Rain was a constant and normal, but it didn't usually come down in buckets for long periods of time, it didn't have to. The clouds never got that heavy because they were just always emptying themselves, I suppose.



I had forgotten about thunderstorms.

So Trish (duchessdollydot) keeps beating me to updating about all the things we have done. And I don't think I mentioned on here that she was coming for a visit. IT IS SO FUN TOURING PEOPLE AROUND DUBLIN. Especially when they don't mind the....very constant walking everywhere. I have known her for yeeeaaaars. Literally. Longer than I've even known snuzzie &co. So yeah.

She got here on Thursday and we went around Campus, book of Kells, O'Connell street, Temple Bar, etc. Then chilled and watched TV for a bit because watching TV can be a bit novel before going to Roddy Bolands because...I like it there and everyone must experience the LOLARIOUS music selection there at least once in their lives. I listed off a bunch of songs that they would play and lo and behold, they did. It's very easy to predict. Shannon., Oana, George and I play a game of trying to guess WHICH SOME WILL BE NEXT. It works with frightening frequency. Clearly they need a new DJ or something to change things up.

YESTERDAY we had a big breakfast in Stephen's Green Shopping Mall and went around the Green as I looked up at the sky and cursed the shitty weather. But it got better! Then we walked around Grafton Street, Powerscourt Townhouse (briefly b/c it's neat), down Dame Street to Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral and ended up accidentally close to St. James Gate. Then un the train up to Howth which is always good fun. I like Howth. SEAFOOD YUM. Shannon got me hooked on mussels and if there is an oyster bar, oysters must be eaten, I'm sure you understand. Then the ever lovely La Cave in it's brilliant wine-bar-ness where the waiter flirts with us (Nez- you created a monster taking me there I love it so much) and swung by Murphy's to finish off the night. ALAS, Derek apparently has Fridays off. Woe.

TODAY we are going over to the North side a bit to see Jameson's Distillery and scooping up Shannon and Oana, possibly, to go into the mountains to see Powerscourt house and gardens. And then probably going dancing. I'm thinking Whelan's as it's the easiest to move around in, especially if you can get in the back area. And it has the best music. And is free before 10:30. \o/ IT'LL BE GOOD TIMES. And has been basically a tour of all my favorite places in the city. Without me going to the Guinness Storehouse a fourth time, which is probably good.

And now for a thecityrpg diversion: AHHHHG I AM WOEFUL THAT I MISSED THE SNAPE POST! I skimmed through it just a bit but. ;;. Also. WHAT IS THIS WHEN DID WE GET A LILY I am excited.

So I woke up this morning with cramps from HELL. Uh, ow? UNCOOL. So I went out to the pharmacy, got Supplies, walked around for an hour and a half and decided I Need To Sit Down Now And Take This Panadol, thanks. So I figured, good a time as any to update again! And it gives the painkillers time to, yanno. Do their magic thing. Plus I figured out this morning walking around that Oh Look! It is Saturday! Things don't open as early! So it's just as well I'm holding off until noon. I mean, things were JUST STARTING TO ROLL UP THE METAL DOORS! Also, it apparently rained or something last night/early this morning as it was a bit cloudy and the ground a bit damp. But it's slowly clearing up so waiting ALSO means it gets sunny for me!

Seriously, you're all going to think Ireland is SUNNY or something instead of the overcast, rainy place it usually is when you see these pictures (of which there are about 100 right now, BE WARNED--it's feast or famine with me).

SO! Recap of yesterday, shall we?

Once I left here (which I returned to mostly to take a shower--did I mention that before?), I went up to the city walls. Which, by the way, are FANTASTIC. Let me tell you a bit about Derry: It was once an island, The walled part was the entire city. Then the river stopped flowing around the one side and it ceased being an island. The area where the river once was became a march, or as the Irish call it, a BOG. During around the time of the Famine, many, many native Irish catholics came to the city looking for work and food which is when BOGSIDE (you see now?) started getting populated and stuff. So the walled part of the city is what the city originally was when it was chartered by the English (and therefore mostly populated by the English who came and settled it--plantation is the word used. but not like the south with cotton, fyi) and it's like, up on this hill and then slopes down towards the river. Walled. And these walls are BIG. But the cool part is that you can walk all around the city and when you're on the Bogside side, you can look over the whole area and across at the hills and Craggan. Really nifty. Plus they've got those hella useful signs everywhere telling you cool stuff.

After I finished my jaunt around the walls, I went down to the Tower Museum. Went through this huge exhibit called the Story of Derry (note above information!) and surprisingly, the other half was about the Spanish Armada. Confused? I was. Until I found out that one of the biggest ships of the Armada ended up in the Lough that's just up the river from Derry and they, you know, found it. So the stuff they found and information about the excavation, etc is all there. Pretty spiffy, I must say!

So by this time, I'm getting very, very hungry. I grab my handy-dandy map and figure out where this place marked out is. Flamin' Jacks, it was called. So I went, I found it was actually a pretty nice restaurant, I got garlic bread, steak and vegetables, I dined, I ate almost everything. It was delicious. And after that it was coming on 7, things were closing, the sun was setting, and I was TIRED, so I came back, dozed, relaxed, went in the breakfast room and had tea and watched a show about urban gardening (socool) and eventually went to sleep. All in all, a lovely day.

Woke up this morning, cramps as mentioned, and lazed in bed for about half an hour before going over for breakfast. Which was delicious. Something about full English or Irish breakfasts will always make me happy. Went to the Foyle Center which is a really big shopping mall and wandered about, went back on the Wall briefly to orient myself and hiked over to the Long Tower Church because it looked pretty. And it was pretty. Lovely architecture! Then made the hike back here and well. Here I am.

THINGS TO DO:
- City Tour
- Bogside Artists Gallery
- WHATEVER STRIKES MY FANCY.

I love traveling solo!

Did I by chance mention that I left Dublin today? No? Didn't think so. If you follow me on twitter, then you got several updates through the day as I was on the Bus Ride Of Doom. Seriously! Four hours on a bus. And when you're in the Republic of Ireland, this is all well and good as the roads are pretty okay. And there was even one point at the beginning where I swear we were going UNDER the city and bypassing ALL TRAFFIC! Seriously! Tunnel! Cool stuff, man. But then you cross the border and while the countryside gets GORGEOUS, the roads get AWFUL.

Part of this is probably because the countryside gets GORGEOUS as by GORGEOUS I mean lots of hills. The roads just get twisty and bumpy as hell. But it was a fun experience! I broke out the laptop for a while--watched Grey's Anatomy and House until it looked like I was going to kill my battery, but otherwise I dozed a bit and watched the world pass by the window. I would have taken pictures but like. Window pictures never turn out. And we were trucking right along. It's different from going through on a train because the trains sorta bypass the towns and stuff. The buses go right through them. I saw adorable little towns! And farms and....okay, it was just fun. If very long. I might take a train back. Go from Portrush to Belfast to Dublin...idk.

But yes! I have bought batteries from the camera and took a few pictures already. It started getting dark though so I had to stop. Derry's right on a river and then it's up on this biiig hill. It looks sorta big coming up at it, but it's actually really easy to get around. I got majorly lost for a little while at first, which is OF COURSE when I had my duffle bag slug across my back (I looked like some sort of strange backpacker, let me tell you!) but I did the smart thing after exploring briefly and hailed a cab. Ended up I'd gotten pretty close to my B&B, only cost me 3 pounds, lol.

SPEAKING OF THE B&B. It is so cute. AND RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOGSIDE AJHFGAHD. The Bogside is what I wanted to come here for. But yes. back to the B&B. Got here, rang the little buzzer, the guy comes out (his name is Seamus and he is very nice) and shows me to my room which is....the very easiest one to find. I'm RIGHT across from the breakfast room, by the front door. OH AND GET THIS. My key is like. ACTUAL OLD KEY. I have to jiggle it to get it in the lock and everything. I look a picture of the front of the B&B and held the key in the foreground. So you get to see. But I left my camera cable in Dublin so you don't get to see until Tuesday when I get back. Oh, and I ended up in a room that can sleep 3 people, what? I have a double bed AND a single bed. Roflll. I was like "...okay..." But it's nice, the bed is comfy, the bathroom is big and there is a plug NEXT TO A MIRROR. First time I've found that since I've been over here.

So Seamus gave me a map and marked out all sorts of places for me. Three pubs with live music, one that's th literary pub, the Bogside museum where they have tours from, a few good places to eat during the day, etc. This should work out wonderfully.

I'm here for three nights before hopping a train to Portrush, where I'll be staying another two nights while I explore Giant's Causeway. When I'm there I'll be in a place called Albany Lodge with another double bed in a room that faces the ocean (!!!). Apparently there's lots of fun stuff to do up there too.

So we'll see how my first adventure traveling all by myself works out! It's going good so far!

So I HAVE to update about this. We had a biiiig storm today. And by that I don't mean like the sky darkens and lighting strikes the earth, I mean a rain and wind storm. Trees falling, bins rolling across the grounds! POWER OUTAGE. A tree fell on the power line to Halls and we were dark for a good several hours. It just came back an hour or so ago, I don't know the exact time as I wasn't here. It gets dark really early here too, so we only had minimal light and only for the first little while so everyone was in their living rooms where the biggest windows are just talking and laughing. Eventually Oana, Matt and I went down to Eddie Rocket's for food and LIGHT. We put money in the jutebox and ate huge burgers which made us look like fooooools, but were super tasty!

So my plans to work were foiled halfway through the afternoon for working on that essay as I was on JSTOR as the screen went into battery mode and the internet cut out. THANKFULLY the internet is back with the power and it's not another weekend of no internet because that SUCKED and was ALSO when I was working on a paper. I decided after that to work with my books and then realized--I couldn't SEE my books properly. Sort of a hazy half-light. Not conductive to, you know. Reading. Thus the trip into town. Plus I was hungry.

But! We get back from town to POWER and a great email from our JCR representative with PICTURES of the destruction. Along with a note about one of the bins speeding past reception. It's basically HILARIOUS.

( A few of my favorites! )

Back to the essay! Since I can, yanno. See now.

So I didn't go to the Irish Language Speed Dating, I'm afraid. That time of month strikes and I'm pretty much immobile for a few hours unless forced by class. Which I wasn't at that point, so I was unconscious. It happens.

But the point of this entry is Christmas. Because I am TOTALLY getting into the Christmas spirit lately. They've put trees up--and I mean HUGE trees--at most of the major intersections in the city and have been decorating them with lights and ribbons, but that's nothing compared to Grafton street. Grafton street right now is just completely gorgeous, they have huge amounts of lights going across the street (it's a pedestrian street by the way, huge number of shops on either side of the road and down side roads. it goes from St. Stephen's Green to right in front of campus) with chandelier like lights hanging down in the middle. The side streets have canopies of lights across them and of course, there are the buskers. There's this one group of string instruments that is usually there and they're just fantastic on the whole, but in combination with the whole atmosphere of the lights and the early darkness (I was walking down this way today at just past 4 and it was getting dark) and Christmas music coming from the shops and the people on the streets playing music...it really gets you in the mood for curling up next to the fireplace with hot cocoa and a tree and lights and cookies...

So I went and bought a mixer, finally. And I got a big mixing BOWL in Belfast, so between the two, do you know what that means?!

COOKIES.

Yeah, I'm excited. This weekend is our Halls Thanksgiving and I'm going to start the cookie baking. It's going to be BRILLIANT.

Living in Ireland: Part Holy Hell Time Flies, or, I Don't Want This to End.

I came to a startling realization this morning. I'm really, really happy here. Which I sort of knew, but it's generally one of those things you just don't think too hard about, you know? I didn't come here expecting to manufacture a new community of people that I genuinely care for, but it seems to have happened. Which is problematic because it's only for a year and then we're all going out separate ways but it's not like undergrad where people (except lunatics like me and the group of people that went to Hong Kong) don't usually go too far for a while at least and mostly stay in their comfort zone and work there to build up money before really going off...Ugh. You see what I'm trying to say, right? Everyone here IS out of their comfort zone- we came from all over the world to be HERE, but we aren't really going to STAY here for any real period of time. After it's over, it's just over. You can't prolong it. It's off and on to the next degree, the next job, the next place. Which is really quite odd when you consider it. Also there's the international aspect. In undergrad I was surrounded by people from my country, from generally ACCESSIBLE places that one could hop in a car and drive to if you had enough gas.

I was talking to my flatmate, Kali, yesterday about the holidays. Most of us are going home, which I AM looking forward to because I've missed my family and friends dearly but it's one of those odd things again. Like I said, we have a little community here now and we're all pretty cozy in the roles we've taken on. But it's like a halfway stop-off point. We dropped our lives back home, often in medias res of something or another--friendships, relationships, family...Poof! And we're not there anymore. Just gone for a while. So for hols we get to slide back into those holes for a while before leaving all over again. I can't decide what I think of that, really. Coming here was a bit like running away for a while, though I didn't realize it at the time. It's like a little paradise. Yeah, it's hard work with the goal of furthering education, but it's also a vacation from life as it was. A taste of something different. A completely, utterly clean slate in a brand new place.

I just can't believe I only have two weeks left of term, really! It feels like just yesterday that I was getting off the plane, losing my luggage, getting constantly lost---oh wait. I still get lost. Damn you, Dublin streets with your lack of visible signs of NAMES! and being completely incapable of understanding half the accents around me. Taking the bus for the first time and being completely sure it was going to get me more lost (it didn't), making that first walk back from Tesco to halls and realizing that is, actually, about a million miles away when you have a duvet, two pillows and a package of toilet paper to deal with. Joining the city-wide search for COAT HANGERS and ranting about the size of the bathroom. Discovering Murphy's, making the giant mistake of going to Copper's, dancing until they turn the lights on at Flannery's. "Yeah, these were the best days of our lives" very frequently playing in the background as we screamed along in huddle on the dance floor. Learning all the words to Galway Girl because dear god they never stop playing it.

Time flies. I don't want to lose this. So I've got to make every moment count! And hopefully when all of this is finally over, the relationships will be of a lasting nature and the people I've come to care for very much will be people I still care for in years to come.

Okay that said. Yesterday was Jess's birhday! She's one of my coursemates and is indescribably sweet. She ran the Dublin Marathon a few weeks back which is. Well, pretty insane but also hella impressive. We had a surprise party for her, which she very nearly sabotaged by trying to have a party on her own! But it worked and we made signs and hid behind a line of chairs and couches and lept out at her shouting "SURPRISE!" as is necessary. And then went in town to Tripod because Laura had a stack of free entry tickets, which was good times! Actually a very odd places because it was like, a SERIES of bars, each one with its own music. Very loud place on the whole, but the dancing was good fun!! If a little hazy on the memory side.

I got to return a rescue favor too! We look out for each other. I really do love it here.

Ugh, long. Sorry about that!

PS- contemplative Lambo is way cute.

As mentioned on my facebook status earlier (because updating that takes far less time and I WAS TIRED, OKAY?!), I am now LEGALLY living in Ireland!

By which I mean I spent all day at the GNIB, which if I ever have to do it again, it will be too soon.

Not that it was like, horrifically painful or anything because I was super prepared and all. Mostly it was waiting for many, many hours. I've had this Magic Red Folder since I left Georgia into which goes all vital paperwork. So things like proof of fees paid, bank statement, receipts of big things, letters from the college (those from home, those collected here), handbooks, you name it. It all went into the Magic Red Folder that I took to carrying around all week as I collected MORE THINGS. The bank is sorted, by the by. The account exists and the check is IN it but not cleared yet because it's from the bank ACROSS THE STREET. Oh, banks. How I despise you! I should get my ATM card on Tuesday OR SO (and the check should clear by then) and I will be able to PURCHASE THINGS like...dishes. And pay my rent. Apparently I word things just right so that the financial officer like, is really nice to me about it. This is not the case for all unfortunate souls with banking issues, as I frequently have to prop the door so Kali can get inside the flat. I have no idea what I said, but I'm glad I said it!

I was going to segue neatly into something of importance or interest here, but I can't remember what. [EDIT: I was going to talk about BANK HOLIDAY meaning NO SCHOOL on monday and go from there, doh!] Instead, I will move towards Living in Ireland Part God Who Know: In Which Megan Goes to School at a Tourist Attraction

( And general notes about attending Trinity College Dublin on the whole. (as requested by Gabby) )

But ALL THAT enormous amount of stuff being said, I think I'll cease. As I've been typing for rather longer than I meant to and I'm due to turn up across the hall in a few minutes. I hope a few of you actually made it through and enjoyed that enormous ramble of epic proportions and that I've maybe given the curious a better idea of what my schooling is like, BECAUSE I DO GO TO CLASSES: FACT! It's not all pubs. The pubs just make better stories. ;)

More next time!

I am bizarrely fond of this photo taken by Colleen at the Guinness Factory.



Just had to share!

(yes, I am in there, CAN YOU SPOT ME.)